Page 74 of Bountiful
“And the pie,” Zarapointedout.
“That,too.”
“I’d give you a bottle of Audrey,” said Audrey. “But you have to attend my wedding if you want one. Saturday. Fiveo’clock.”
“Got it.” I chuckled. “Nice seeing you again,Audrey.”
Zara walked me inside, where I thanked her mother for lunch. Mama Rossi had softened up just a little towards me, I decided. Because she said, “Goodbye, honey. Come again anytime.” Or maybe she was just looking forward to grilling mesomemore.
I was spared from having a final discussion with Zara’s grumpiest uncle, because he was busy arguing with Griffin Shipley. As best I could tell, Griffin wanted Otto to sell him part of his pear harvest. “I can’t get cider pears anywhere else,” he argued. “And you aren’t monetizing thematall.”
But Otto didn’t sound too keen on the idea of selling part of his harvest, and for some reason it made me happy to see Zara’s ex fail to gethisway.
I shouldn’t have cared, though. It had nothing to dowithme.
On the porch, I gave Zara a hug and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for lunch, beautiful. Text me if you want to gettogether.”
“I will,” she said. “But it’s going to be abusyweek.”
“That’s my fault!” Audrey said cheerfully. “Last-minute wedding prep isbrutal.”
“Maybe I’ll see you atyoga,then?”
“Maybe?” Zara said, giving me a wave as I walked off theporch.
I could feel her friend Audrey’s eyes on me as I got into my rental car. The minute I pulled away, I knew they’d be talking about me. And I wished I were a fly on the wall. Zara was hard to read. I shouldn’t care how she felt about me, but I didanyway.
While the engine warmed up, I found four missed calls on my phone, all from Bess. And when it rang again through the car’s Bluetooth as I drove along the hilltop, Iansweredit.
“How’d it go?” Bess askedatonce.
“Just a flesh wound,” I said in my best Monty Pythonaccent.
“No,really.”
“Fine. Of course it went fine. I got all the standard questions. Zara’s uncle is a tool. But I don’t mind being grilled about my career. And after lunch I spent some time with Zara, and thatwasnice.”
“What about the baby? Did you playwithher?”
“Wait, is that something you’re supposed to do?” I’d meant it as a joke, but playing with babies wasn’t really part of myrepertoire.
“Dave!”
“Just kidding. We went for a walk, and when she fell asleep on Zara I carriedherhome.”
“Yeah?” The sound of optimism in my sister’s voice was pretty hard to miss. “I wish I could have seen it. Did anyone take apicture?”
“No.” It hadn’t occurred to me. Carrying Nicole wasn’t a photo op. It was just something I’d done for Zara, who had “carried” her in one way or another for two years. Though I hadn’t minded the feel of her warm weight on my injured shoulder. Babies smelled like strawberries,apparently.
Bess let out a deep, wistful sigh, which I found mildly alarming. My sister’s sudden attack of baby fever was freaking me out a little. So I changed the subject. “Zara’s mom cooked a feast. I’m gonna have to run an extra three miles to work italloff.”
“Were her uncles hardonyou?”
“Nah. They were just letting me know they were paying attention.” Though I’d never be the guy they wanted for Zara. Maybe nobody was. No man alive would ever be good enough to impregnatemysister, so I didn’t expect Zara’s family to like me,either.
But I’d wanted to make Zara more comfortable, especially after our fight. And I’d done that. She’d hugged me goodbye with a secretsmile.
I’dtakeit.
